Workshop Wednesdays are a weekly segment where I provide a composition analysis of a real estate photograph. If you have a specific type of room or exterior space that you would like to see in this segment or you would like one of your photographs featured, please get in touch.
This week’s image is from a daytime photo-shoot of a three-level house in an inner-city suburb. The subject of this image is the outdoor entertainment area, and the goal of this image is to introduce potential buyers and renters to the impressive structure and size of the space as they make their way ‘up the stairs’ to the space.
1.0
The composition places the structural elements of the outdoor entertainment area into to the right two-thirds of the image, and the sky and stairs leading up to the space into the left third of the frame.
2.0
The low perspective (due to the tripod being at the bottom of the two steps), makes the structure of the outdoor entertainment area feel extra-large, almost like it is towering over the viewer. Note that the height off the camera wasn’t lowered on the tripod as over-exaggerating this effect would make the stone tile flooring dominate the image and take up the majority of the image.
The viewer is naturally inclined to ‘walk’ their eyes up the stairs, and the strong vertical lines of the wooden bench seat on the right-hand side of the images helps bring the viewer’s attention to the centre of the image.
3.0
The converging diagonal lines of the wooden beam supporting the ceiling, and the edge of the roof structure lead the views across the image towards the centre of the image where the features of the space are to be found (see point 4 below).
4.0
The setup of the composition (assisted by the slightly lower camera position due to being at the bottom of two stairs) places the main features of the outdoor area in the centre third (middle) of the image. Showing the viewer an overview of the main features available in the outdoor entertainment area is a great way of leading into close-up/detailed images in the series of images published in the online listing.
5.0
Each side of the image is ‘framed’ by the landscaping provided in the outdoor space, although the pine tree on the right ‘closes’ the image much more affectively than the smaller plants on the left of the image. This works in the photographer’s favour as we want the viewer to understand that there is more to the backyard/exterior to the left of the image, which is revealed in the series of images in this property listing (and in next week’s Workshop Wednesday image).
Photograph Information
Camera: NIKON D750
Aperture (ƒ): 11
Focal Length (mm): 15
ISO: 640
Shutter Speed (s): 1/40s (5 Brackets)
Flash Fired: No